In my experience parents generally like it when their kids pay attention to them, things just work better when children know how to listen and obey (Say, “Amen,” if you agree). But why should they pay attention, listen and obey? (You’d better have answer for that question because the likelihood of it coming up increases with your child/rens’ age, and with that increase in age they really can mess with your mind and heart.) Children should pay attention to, listen to, and obey their parents because:
- We love them, and in that love we have nothing but their best interests, their success, and their happiness in mind.
- We know what is best for them. We have insight, foresight, experience, maturity, and wisdom they do not yet possess.
- We provide for them, we pay attention to their needs, we can do things they can’t.
- We have disciplining power, veto power, privilege power, etc. (I regularly informed our great kids that they were living under a benevolent dictatorship run by Susie and me regardless of how much they clamored for a full democracy).
- Paying attention to, listening to, and obeying your parents is right before God (Ephesians 6:1).
In my experience life goes so much better when we pay attention to God, when we listen to him and obey him. Homes and families run much better when Dad, Mom, and the children all pay attention to, listen to, and obey God (Feel free to say, “Amen,” if you agree). But why should we pay attention to God, listen to Jesus Christ, and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit and his written word, the Bible? We should do so because:
- God loves us, and in that love He always has our best interest, our success, and true and lasting happiness/blessedness in mind.
- God knows what is best for us. Like children, it is our ignorance, pride, and rebellion that cause us to think otherwise. God has ultimate and infinite wisdom, insight, foresight, and perfection that we do not possess.
- God provides for us, every day is a gift from him, every good thing comes from His hands, and every plate of food we eat has God as its source. But God also knows that we have need for provision in regard to eternal things, forgiveness of sins, deliverance from judgment, victory over death, eternal life, all of which He provided for through his Son Jesus Christ.
- God holds the power to hold each one of us accountable for every action, attitude, word, and thought. He not only has the power to discipline, but to judge and condemn. We do well to regularly remind ourselves that Heaven is not a democracy but a monarchy eternally ruled by the King of Kings.
- Paying attention to, listening to, and obeying God through faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to be in a right relationship with God, the only way to be a true child of His. “But to all who believed him (Jesus Christ) and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God” John 1:12-13 (NLT, parenthesis mine). “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” 1 John 3:23 (NASB).
To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans